Wheel disk assemblies of the type stated at the outset are known in many different embodiments in the prior art. During assembly, the blade devices are inserted into grooves in the wheel disk, wherein the sealing plates are successively also inserted into the two annular grooves. To enable the last two blade devices to be installed, it is necessary that all the sealing plates should already have been mounted and moved beyond the areas of overlap thereof into the annular grooves to such an extent that the blade devices can be installed in the associated grooves in the wheel disk. The sealing plates are then pushed back again in the circumferential direction into the intended position thereof and are secured there in a suitable manner against displacement.
One disadvantage of the known wheel disk assemblies is that the sealing plates are pressed against the blade devices under the action of the prevailing centrifugal force during the operation of the wheel disk assembly as intended, with the result that the entire intrinsic weight of the sealing plates acts on the blade devices. This leads to a high stress on the joints between the wheel disk and the blade devices, for which reason these have to be of very massive construction and this is associated with high costs.
As an alternative to this, there is a proposal known from EP 1 944 472 A1, for example, to support the sealing plates radially on the wheel disk, thus ensuring that the centrifugal forces thereof are taken by the wheel disk. For this purpose, a projection is provided on each sealing plate, said projection engaging behind a corresponding projection on the wheel disk. However, the unilateral force transmission into the wheel disk is disadvantageous.